Sunshine now, showers coming later this week | Weather

Title (Max 100 Characters)

Sunshine will win the battle in the sky once again today, and much of Western Washington will likely have its warmest day of 2012 this afternoon.

There's a "battle" going on as a weak upper-level disturbance is riding over the northern fringe of a huge bubble of high pressure. We live right by that northern fringe, so clouds -- and even a few light showers -- are prevalent this morning. This disturbance will be gone by mid-morning, taking most of the clouds with it.

Plan on partly to mostly sunny skies this afternoon with highs in the low 70s in the central sound, mid/upper 70s in the south Sound and SW Washington, and upper 60s north of Everett. If Seattle makes it above 70 degrees today, it will be the warmest day of the calendar year.

Upper-level high pressure will slide a bit to the east on Monday, but not far enough to take away our warm weather. After a cool start, temperatures will climb into the 70s for the second straight day, the first time that has happened since mid-September.

Long-range computer forecast models keep us showery through the end of the week, but once again they dry us out as we get into next weekend. If the current forecast holds, we have a decent chance of going "0-for-April" when it comes to measurable rainfall on April weekends for the first time in Seattle history.